Sermon Central
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Praying For Enemies
Contributed by Sermon Central on Dec 31, 2022 (message contributor)
I once invited a guest lecturer to speak to a counseling class I was teaching and asked him to specifically discuss the topic of forgiveness. He told a powerful story from his own life that day to illustrate his point that we should forgive.
His brother had many struggles, and one day there was a conflict that arose and someone shot and killed my friend’s brother. The whole family was sad of course and grieved very much about this sudden and unfortunate loss. Our guest that day said he struggled initially to forgive the man that killed his brother. After a while though, God helped him process the tragedy and forgive the murderer.
This was the neat part. For years, my friend had a prayer list with his brother’s name on it, and he prayed for him often. After his death, he eventually got to the point where he erased his brother’s name and inserted the murderer's name in his brother's place on the prayer list, and now he prays for him often.
This is what true forgiveness looks like.
(Taken from an illustration by Dr. Mark Eckart, entitled "This Is Forgiveness", on 7/6/2009, https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/72808/forgiveness-for-others-by-dr-mark-eckart)
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